BSG: S5, Interlude: Black and White Disorientation
by MissiAmphetamine
Summary: After an argument with Lee, Starbuck goes hunting, only to become the hunted. (Set between "Said the Spider to the Fly" and "The Trials and Tribulations of Parenthood")
1. Part One - Spiritus Mundi

_Disclaimer: _Battlestar Galactica and the characters do not belong to me. I'm just playing with them.

_Author's Note: _ Sorry about the long wait for this Interlude. RL has been busy, busy, busy, and I haven't had the chance to sit down and write. Thank you heaps to everyone who has reviewed, I appreciate your feedback so much :)

Enjoy!

# # #

_**Interlude: Black and White Disorientation**_

_**Part One – Spiritus Mundi**_

_Turning and turning in the widening gyre_

_The falcon cannot hear the falconer;_

_Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;_

_Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,_

_The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere_

_The ceremony of innocence is drowned;_

_The best lack all conviction, while the worst_

_Are full of passionate intensity._

_Surely some revelation is at hand;_

_Surely the Second Coming is at hand._

_The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out_

When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi

_Troubles my sight: a waste of desert sand;_

_A shape with lion body and the head of a man,_

_A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,_

_Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it_

_Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds._

_The darkness drops again but now I know_

_That twenty centuries of stony sleep_

_Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,_

_And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,_

_Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?_

William Butler Yeats, 1919

# # #

"_You shut your godsdamned mouth, motherfrakker." Starbuck hissed out, knife to the grinning bastard's throat, her hand shaking and knuckles white around the hilt._

"_Or you'll what? Cut on me? Torture me some? You've already done that, sweetheart. Old hat, now." He tried to twist around to look into Starbuck's eyes and she gripped his arm harder, fingers digging into his bicep, knife pressing warningly harder against the tender flesh of his throat._

"_Well then, should be easy for me to slip back into the habit. A well-trodden path. Had me a lotta practice." She was shaking and furious despite her attempts at flippancy, and the blade bit into his throat and pierced the skin, a thin line of red appearing._

"_Just a pity we don't have an airlock for after I'm done."_

"_Poor frightened little Kara Thrace. Thinks she's a bird. Thinks she's free and safe, but I've seen. I've seen."_

"_Shut up." Starbuck growled the words through her clenched jaw, fury pumping through her._

"_Kara." Lee's voice warning her not to do anything silly; trying to be calming and defuse the situation and just coming out tense and tight._

"_Shut up, Lee." She growled instantly and instinctively at him, and then her eyes widened with shock, moving to meet his worried blue ones over Leoben's shoulder. Lee? What in the hell was he doing here?_

_That slight distraction was all it took._

_Leon grabbed Starbuck's arm where it crossed around his shoulder from behind and held the knife to his throat, his fingers crushing her wrist and simultaneously yanking it away from his throat._

_Starbuck felt the small bones in her wrist crunching as Leon constricted his hand around them, mashing them into one another and she yelped, pain blanking her mind for a moment._

_Leon's other arm ripped free of Starbuck's grasp on it and ploughed back elbow-first into her stomach, whooshing the wind out of her. She staggered back, knife falling from numbed fingers, wrist hurting like a bitch and momentarily dazed._

_Before Starbuck could collect herself, before Lee could cross the dry ground to grab Leon, the Two snagged the tumbling knife out of midair and whirled Starbuck around._

_She flailed out as she gasped for breath that wouldn't come, the brief panic of breathlessness making her struggles ineffective. And then Leon held her tight and the cold blade touched her throat, just piercing the skin. _

_Starbuck froze._

# # #

Earlier

Lee was doing some stupid frakking thing to do with the dissident movement today. Giving some rousing speech about getting together to prepare and present an organised argument to the Council. Well, to be fair, he was only going to be busy for a few hours, but still. It got under Starbuck's skin, itched at her. Especially considering today she had planned to make a godsdamned effort. She'd got the day off, and made a picnic. She, Kara Thrace, had actually prepared a _picnic_ for her and Lee. All romantic and intimate, and aimed to show him just how much she really cared about him, under all the complications and shit that plagued their relationship. Starbuck felt like Lee needed the reassurance at the moment, and she needed to remind herself how important he was to her.

And then him and his stupid frakking cause had ruined all her plans. It wasn't like the damned meeting couldn't wait until the next day, but he had said that he'd arranged it for today, and it would take too much effort to rearrange it with everyone. He _had_ seemed genuinely disappointed, though. But it didn't let him off the hook with Starbuck – she was still pissed.

She had even made little sandwiches, for frak's sake – little stacks with three slices of bread and the fanciest fillings she could get her hands on.

So they'd had an argument – of course – and she had stormed off – also of course. She sort of regretted that now. Okay, so they wouldn't have been able to have a whole day out, but they still could have had the afternoon together. And to be honest, the sandwiches would have kept until then. They weren't doing anyone any good where they were now. Tossed angrily out the window during the course of the argument, one sticking to a tree trunk for a second before flopping forlornly to the ground.

Starbuck snorted with the rueful amusement hindsight granted her, and kept walking, slow and steady.

Landfall itself lay far behind her now, and she was nearing the outskirts of the farms that sprawled raggedly out from it. The sky was a brilliant clear blue, and the land was a sea of bone-dry grasses, the occasional low clump of bushes like gnarled islands. Starbuck could tell summer was waning from the feel of the air; usually purely scorching, there was now the barest hint of freshness to the soft breeze. Still hot enough to cook an egg on a rock though.

Starbuck shifted the rifle that was slung over her shoulder, her eyes scanning the plains that stretched out before her. A group of hunters she had met in Landfall had said they'd seen a herd of zebra near the settlement, and Starbuck was hoping she might be able to pick off a foal. Easier to take down than an adult, and small enough for her to skin and butcher on the spot, and lug back to Landfall in pieces.

That was the plan, anyway.

But regardless of whether her hunt was successful or not, it was good to be out here. Cleansing. Alone under the sun, Starbuck felt lighter, more peaceful, and the last vestiges of her anger melted away. Her mind wandered aimlessly as her feet carried her in the direction the hunters had pointed out.

Since Romo Lampkin's disaster of a dinner party, Starbuck had been thinking about her and Lee again. Trying to work things out in her head. She hadn't gotten very far though. It was all too damn confusing.

What she did know was that it was during the dinner party that Starbuck had suddenly felt sorry for Lee. Empathy had kicked in, and she had felt so godsdamned sorry for him. In retrospect, it had been a shocking kind of moment. For so long Starbuck had only felt sorry for herself. Wallowing in self-pity for months – ever since the fresh excitement of making landfall on this new Earth had faded. She was attracted to Lee, loved him, but that evening had been the first time she had truly connected to him in such a long time. Just…feeling empathy. Such a simple little feeling, but so frakking important.

A baobab tree lay at her 2 o'clock, the only shade-giver for miles. Immense and squat, with a strange, solid dignity about it, the tree drew her eye. Starbuck wondered how old it was, how long it had been growing. From a tiny seed to a living mountain on the plain. There was something comforting about it. Somehow it made her mind whirl from Lee to Sam.

Starbuck had gone over and over her strange conversation with Head-Sam, but the words – so clear, so simple then, seemed different outside of the moment, without his hands ghostly on her, his breath warm on her neck. Less substantial. Fuzzier. It was one thing to say something to your husband when he was touching you, talking to you – but quite another to feel those things when he was, once more, lying still and white in a coma.

She squinted around her, part of her mind taking in her surrounds, evaluating the environment, alert for danger, and the rest of her mind drifted. The sun soaked into her skin, making her thoughts drowsy and disjointed.

Sam had been simple. Straightforward. No guilt there, no painful, complicated history. Just a really good guy, and a healthy mutual attraction. It could have been so easy and happy, if it wasn't for her feelings for Lee.

Whereas Lee… Starbuck's feelings for Lee were complex and tangled. All bound up still in the old guilt from the evening they had first met so long ago now, and then entwined with her guilt about Zack's death.

A chill ran through her despite the blazing noonday sun.

Sometimes, when things were very bad, Starbuck had wondered if subconsciously her desire for Lee had led her to…

But that was just self-flagellation, like Romo Lampkin had said. Starbuck knew it wasn't true, and yet she couldn't separate her feelings for Lee from all that…all that _shit_.

Lee was irresistible attraction and perfection, all tied up in guilt and _wrong_. Starbuck had wanted him from the moment she had first seen him – a zing of chemistry they had both recognised and been unable to resist. But she should have resisted. She should never have kissed him, that evening when Zack was sleeping right godsdamned there. And everything she had felt for Lee since then had been coloured by that one frakking mistake.

Starbuck couldn't shake off the guilt, even when she knew she should.

And when her confusing feelings toward Lee were mixed up with her own many other godsdamned issues…well, it just made one big _issues soup_.

She began up a gentle slope, the long grass swishing over her pants, boots crushing the brittle strands of grass slick beneath her feet.

Sam had kept her safe from her attraction toward Lee, for a while, at least, given her freedom from that confusing desire. It hadn't lasted. Lee had crept back in to her heart no matter how hard she tried to block him out. The funny thing – hah – was that Starbuck truly loved Sam; it was just a pity she only realised how much she really cared for him after he'd been essentially killed. Lost something only to realise how much she needed it. Didn't appreciate it when she had it.

Starbuck sniffed wetly, rubbed at her nose with her knuckles.

She didn't want to do the same thing with Lee. Didn't want to make the same frakking awful mistakes. Didn't want to push him away, and then lose him and discover only then how damned much she had needed him.

She didn't want another Sam.

But Starbuck was still afraid, deep down where she didn't want to admit it to herself. Afraid that if she just let things go with Lee, lost control and just…embraced their relationship, her feelings, that… That something horrible would happen. She didn't know what. Didn't know whether it was baggage from her childhood or that taint that coloured her feelings for Lee making her feel that way, but she didn't like it. It was why, even now, she kept Lee at a distance.

She got scared. Her gut got scared, and a good pilot always listened to their gut.

And then Starbuck crested a hillock and her thoughts flew out of her head like startled birds as she stared at the sight before her.

She had never seen a herd of zebra before, only the carcasses the hunters brought back to the settlement. She had thought the skins were beautiful – so unusual, so striking, but the skins were no match for the real thing. They were a vast blanket of black and white on the plains below her, the patterning on their coats making them seem to undulate and waver, producing a mesmerising disorientating effect. It was a good way to confuse predators, Starbuck realised, rifle slipping down ready into her hands automatically.

The younger animals mostly seemed grouped in towards the middle of the herd; their parents were obviously watchful caretakers, and Starbuck found herself wondering if she would be able to take down a beast. She didn't mind going home empty handed, but she was determined to try. She circled around them, checking the wind direction and making sure to stay downwind, not wanting to alert them to danger.

Time passed, and Starbuck had settled in at the base of a tree, lying in the grass on the edge of a low ridge, affording her a good view over the herd. She had selected the young animal she wanted to take down – a curious thing, which kept breaking away from the middle of the group and skirting the outsides, muzzle snuffling the grass. It was kinda cute. Starbuck almost felt bad about killing it. Almost. She gazed sharply down the rifle scope, hands holding the weapon steady, breath even and slow.

And then the herd went on alert, heads jerking upright from the grass they had been plucking, and huddling closer together. The young foal disappeared into the pack, and Starbuck swore under her breath. What had spooked them? She lowered her rifle and pushed herself up into a crouch, grabbing a handful of dust and letting it fall to the ground, checking the wind direction. It hadn't changed. They couldn't have caught _her_ scent, so what had made them so frakking edgy? Starbuck started feeling edgy herself, rising to her feet, rifle clutched in hand.

That was when she saw it – a lion, skirting around the herd at her 1 o'clock. Frak. Her breath caught in her throat. Colonists had been torn apart by those creatures. They were godsdamned _dangerous._ Starbuck took a step back; behind the tree she stood next to, hoping the lion hadn't seen her. It was male, and young – its huge ruff of fur only just growing in. But young though it might be, it was still frakking enormous in comparison to her.

Starbuck couldn't outrun it, couldn't necessarily take it down quickly even with this high-powered rifle – she had heard that they were tough animals. She was godsdamned _frakked_ if it caught her scent.

Ohhh _frak_.

It had caught her scent. The great cat was about a couple hundred metres away, and had stopped slinking through the long grass, and was bounding toward Starbuck. Shit.

"Shit, shit, _shit_!"

It was a lean, muscular animal, and looked like it would weigh in at 350lbs at the minimum – massive, covering the ground between her and itself so godsdamned _quickly_.

Shit.

She lifted the rifle in her hands, sighted fast, and squeezed the trigger. It made a snarling, yelping sound and she saw red bloom along its flank. Frak! She'd winged it. She aimed and fired – another graze, its ear this time – right through the tip of its ear and out through its godsdamned mane. _Shit_. Again – she hit the shoulder and the creature made a thundering rumbling sound, stumbling before charging on. There was nowhere to run and it was nearly on her…

Starbuck squeezed the trigger again and again, trying desperately to keep her hands steady, her lips pressed into a thin, focused line. Cool and calm under pressure, she told herself, terror thrilling in her veins like fire. This was _not_ like being in a viper with a raider on your tail – somehow it was an entirely new and frightening experience, even though failing would result in the same outcome.

She held her breath, and fired.

Fifteen metres away and it yelped and made a yowling roar again, its momentum flipping it head over heels as her shot thudded home dead centre in its chest. It tumbled and then skidded to a stop only a couple of metres away, flat on its back, blood leaking rich and dark from the wound, one paw twitching weakly in its death throes. Starbuck sighted and pulled the trigger again – just to make sure the godsdamned thing was really dead – and swore when nothing happened. Frak, she'd emptied the godsdamned magazine at that thing, and only gotten in one good shot. That was some frakking poor shooting on her part.

The creature's twitching stopped, and Starbuck stepped cautiously closer, yanking her hunting knife. Slit the lion's throat to make sure it was dead, and then skin and butcher the thing. If she couldn't have zebra – they had moved off further into the distance, nervous and packed together tightly – then she'd godsdamned well make sure she got the lion. Starbuck leant over it, reaching down to cut its throat and bleed it out.

And then the thing suddenly twisted up like some hideous godsdamned zombie and was on her before she could even scream, all claws and teeth and fury crashing into her and smashing her to the ground. Starbuck's head hit dirt hard enough to daze her, and claws raked her knife arm, her other hand snapping up instinctively to push at the creature's head, driving the snarling, drooling mouth away from her face. Her knife arm was trapped beneath its enormous paw, its head too massive and powerful to force back. Her heels scrabbled at the ground, every inch of her body screaming out as she pushed her muscles past their limits, just to try and keep it from tearing her to shreds.

There was no way she could kill it, she realised in a glazed flash of truth. Starbuck kept fighting though; if it was going to kill her, she'd frakking give it a good fight first. Its claws raked her arm again and she jerked out a scream – the pain was like nothing else she'd ever felt, like liquid fire delving down and through her flesh. She could barely breathe beneath it; well over 300 thrashing, furious pounds crushing her, teeth at least an inch long snapping and snarling at her face, her hand desperately, frantically, trying to keep its head at bay.

Black spots danced in her vision. Her lungs screamed for air. Everything started going dark and splotchy, and the teeth lunged forward and scraped at her cheek as she twisted her head to one side to avoid the bite.

This was it, She thought dazedly.

Well, frak.

# # #

_Authors Note:_ To be continued in _Part Two - Inimicus Animo_…and then it's on to _Episode Four: The Trials and Tribulations of Parenthood_.

The character _Leon_, is a Two who has become an individual, and taken his own name – the name being a variation on Leoben. I figure that now they aren't resurrecting and sharing memories etc, the Cylons would start becoming more and more individuals, with differing opinions and beliefs. Not all of them, of course, but a good handful. So far in the series, I've introduced _Alice_ (Redwing's girlfriend and an Eight, mentioned by Starbuck in Episode One), _Sarah_ (the Eight who is on the Council), _Leonidas_ (A Two that Lee spoke to in Episode Three, who agrees with Lee that violence isn't the way the dissident movement should be heading), and now, _Leon_.

I normally don't use poems/songs/quotes at the beginning of stories, but I chose that one because I felt it lent the _Interlude_ the right sort of atmosphere. I just love that last line. Also, when I looked at the poem and read it through with the series in mind, it actually has some relevance … vague and obscure hints as to what may come. A prophecy of a sort – although as we all know, in the BSG 'verse, prophecies don't always work out the way you think…

I hope I managed to explain Starbuck's feelings for Sam/Lee clearly in this chapter. It's surprisingly hard to try to lay out what I think the character is feeling/what her motivations are, because I think her feelings would be very complicated, and not clear-cut in the slightest. But hopefully, the inner monologue-ing helped explain things in a way that makes sense.

Please, leave a _review_ and let me know what you thought of it :)


	2. Part Two - Inimicus Animo

_Author's Note: _As always, a big thank you to the people who review!

And now on to the second (and final) part of this _Interlude_. I'm considering having an interlude revolving around a particular character every three or so episodes – it's quite fun to write a short story like this, and it lends itself to brief, exciting adventures and character development. But we'll see…

This chapter is _M-Rated_ for sexual content.

Enjoy!

# # #

Part Two – Inimicus Animo

_Eeny, meeny, miny, moe,_

_Catch a lion by the toe._

_If he hollers, let him go,_

_Inimicus Animo._

Doggerel, undated

# # #

A shot rang out and before Starbuck's brain could process it, her face was splattered with a fine mist of wet blood and hot flesh, flecks of lion skull and brain matter. The powerful, frenzied jaws stopped snapping, and the heavy body went utterly limp on hers. Her relief came and went before she had time to recognise it.

"Geh…get this…frakking _thing_…the frak _off_ me." She gasped out, spitting blood and goo from her mouth with an expression of pure disgust. The body was slowly dragged off her and rolled with a grunting heave to one side by a male figure. Starbuck never thought to wonder who it could be, just glad to be free, heaving breath back into her lungs, dazed. She assumed it would be one of the hunters she was kind of acquainted with, or perhaps one of the few she didn't know.

Panting, teeth clenched against the agony radiating from her shoulder down to her elbow, knife _still_ clutched numbly in her hand, Starbuck looked up, vision clearing, and saw a Two, holding his hand out to her. She bit back a breathy scream before it passed her bloodied lips and scrambled back, kicking her feet in the dust.

"You okay, Kara?" The Two asked, staring at her curiously, the hint of a smile curving his lips. She didn't answer him right away, making it to her feet without his help and clutching her knife harder, ignoring the flaring pain in her clawed arm.

"I'm fine." She said warily, taking a staggering step back, the shotgun he held making her extremely uneasy.

"Lucky timing. Although, one could call it destiny." He mused, smiling properly now and the expression, filled with faux warmth that didn't quite reach his eyes made Starbuck shiver.

"Yeah. Whatever." She mumbled, and then feeling like she should, because hey, he had just saved her life,

"Thanks. Leoben."

"Leon. _My_ name is _Leon_." He corrected her and a spark of anger glittered in his eyes. Starbuck swallowed hard. All the Twos were half frakking insane, but this one seemed crazier than most. She trusted him as far as she could throw him, which right now, was not an inch. Her arm was frakking _killing_ her.

"Yeah, okay. Thanks…Leon." Starbuck wasn't so sure she wanted to bother with the lion's skin and meat now – she just wanted to get away from the gun-toting Two who was currently looking at her with a smile that made her want to piss herself more than a 300lb plus lion had. She backed away another step. He just kept grinning at her.

Frak.

"Need some help, Kara?"

"No – no. I'm fine, thanks." She forced the gratitude past her lips and wiped her mouth with her unwounded arm, curling her lip at the fluid and matter she smeared off onto her wrist.

"You probably want to skin your kill. No point in letting it go to waste. I'm okay to head back to Landfall by myself. Better go visit a doc for my arm, before, ah, septicaemia sets in or, um, something."

"You don't want the lion, Kara?" Leoben – no, _Leon_ – asked slyly, and Starbuck shook her head, vision blurring as she did. She'd hit her head harder than she'd thought.

"No. The kill's yours. You saved my life. Least I can do." She tried to be off-hand as she backed away casually, but it wasn't working, and Leon took a prowling step toward her.

"Don't go." His request – no, order – came out sounding creepy as frak, and Starbuck froze on the spot and went cold as his gun came up to cover her.

"Wha–?"

"Don't. Go." Leon repeated precisely.

She didn't go. He circled her and her blood froze over with icy hatred as he examined her, 360 degrees around, that crazy godsdamned smile still pinned on his face.

"Saved from one lion, to be caught by another." He wondered quietly as if to himself and Starbuck's knife-hand twitched involuntarily.

"Huh, funny isn't it?" He met her eyes, stepping in closer but just far enough away that she couldn't strike out at him without him shooting her first.

"Today is your lion day, Kara."

"What the frak are you going on about?" She refused to give him the satisfaction of showing the threads of fear coiling in her stomach.

"I was hoping for the chance to speak to you alone, but the time never seemed quite…right. Now I know why. I was meant to save you, here, now. Save you from the beast." He didn't look godsdamned right in the head at all, and Starbuck cringed inwardly, before the content of his words sank in.

"You've been following me." A statement, not a question, but he answered her anyway.

"Yes, Kara. Keeping you safe, as you can see." He indicated the lion with his head, not moving the shotgun an inch from where the barrel pointed directly into her face.

"You _sick frak_." She hissed and spat at him, a gobbet of bloody phlegm that spattered at his feet, and he flashed her a sorrowful look.

"Now that's hardly the gratitude I deserve, is it?"

"Oh frak off." Starbuck rolled her eyes, subtly getting a better grip on the knife handle. She debated swapping it from her wounded right arm to her left hand, but he would stop her, she knew it. No point in trying.

"We have a past, Kara. We were meant to meet here today. Were meant to meet in all the places and times we have come together. We have a past, a present and a future." Leon eyed her, his face that of a gentle parent instructing his wayward child and Starbuck shuddered.

"You're right. We do have a future together. The one in which I kill you. Again." She snarked at him and he frowned a little. Looked genuinely sad. Gods, this Two scared the living shit out of her.

"Except this time there isn't any resurrection ship, and you'll finally _stay dead_." Starbuck continued, stance steady despite her probable concussion and burning arm, knife held firm by her side. He hadn't told her to drop it yet – probably knew she'd refuse.

"Will I won't I. Who can tell, who can see?" Leon paused in his crazy babble, leaned forward secretively, poked the gun barrel toward her face,

"I know. I saw. A vision. The future. Our future. The second coming."

"Right, the second coming. Of course." Starbuck mocked him, not knowing what else to do. Maybe if she got him angry he'd be distracted enough for her to grab him and slit his throat. Bleed out a different lion.

"No, really Kara. Listen to me. There will be a second coming. God showed it to me. Anarchy loosed, the blood-dimmed tide… It will come. Destruction, again." His eyes were alive now, shining with the frightening conviction of the insane as he stared at her intently,

"All this has happened before…" He told her, urgency in his voice. Starbuck shivered at the thrill the words sent down her spine, feeling cold and numb; whether it was really his words or her injuries, she didn't know.

"And all of it will happen again." The phrase drawn out of Starbuck as though she had no choice but to speak it, words dreamy on the afternoon air. Leon gave her a pleased smile.

"Kara. My angel."

She shook herself at that, bristled.

"I'm no frakking angel."

"But you are. An angel who led her people home." He insisted, eyes blazing.

"No." Starbuck shook her head vehemently,

"No I'm not. I didn't."

"Then what is this, Kara?"

Anger welled up in her, sharp and hot.

"It's not home! I'm not a godsdamned _angel_ and this isn't _home_. Home is back on the colonies, out _there_ somewhere, and we're never going back, or Galactica – and she's up out there too, dead in the godsdamned black!" She gestured at the sky with her uninjured arm, eyes as fierce as Leon's now.

"I didn't lead anyone _home_." Starbuck fell silent, panting, her wounded arm sending ripples of pain down to her fingertips, her head aching and throbbing and confusing her thoughts.

"You led us to a place we could make our home, Kara. You're arguing semantics now, and you know it. You know the truth – deep down somewhere you know it. And you're seeking it now aren't? Kara?"

She wished he'd stop saying her frakking name; every time he uttered it the word was soaked with worshipful awe. She hated it. She just had to wait for him to drop his guard…

"Semantics? No, it's the _truth_. I'm not an angel, and I godsdamned well know it. And I don't know what this shit is that you're trying to sell me about Second Comings and visions of the future, but I ain't buying it, _Leoben_." She deliberately called him by his old moniker, and his face immediately twisted with anger.

"_Leon_, Kara, you will call me _Leon_. I am not just another Two, I am my own person. A unique individual, with a unique destiny."

"Yeah, to get killed by me a whole bunch. Some destiny, _Leoben_." Starbuck deadpanned, shifting her grip on the knife again.

"I'm trying to warn you, Kara Thrace. Trying to _help_. I've helped you before…don't you trust me?"

"You're holding me at gun point. I'm not feelin' the trust, myself." Starbuck responded lightly,

"Maybe I'd feel a little more interested in listening to you if you got that big ol' gun out of my frakking _face_."

Leon stared at Starbuck, and then down at the shotgun he clutched in one hand ready to fire if need be, the weapons butt braced against his shoulder.

That little distraction was all it took.

Starbuck took her chance.

Her uninjured left arm lashed up and out, striking the barrel of the shotgun and sweeping it outwards, knocking it from Leon's grasp. As his eyes rounded in shock and mouth spat a curse the gun flew out from his grasp, and Starbuck flinched and nearly shit herself when the weapon went off at the same instant. A heartbeat passed before Starbuck and Leon both realised he hadn't shot her as the gun continued on its arc through the air and landed with a thud in the long grass.

Starbuck collected herself and reacted before Leon, flinging herself at him in mimicry of the lion that had leaped on her before and knocking him to the ground. They fell in the dust heavily, she on top of him, and it billowed in a cloud around them, snarling in Starbuck's throat and stinging her eyes. Her hand balled up into a fist around the handle of her hunting knife and she struck the butt of the hilt against Leon's temple as hard as she could, a sick satisfaction running through her at the cracking thud it made as it connected.

It dazed Leon but against all odds didn't knock him out, and his hand snapped up, fingers raking down Starbuck's bloodied wounds. She didn't have the time or breath to scream, a twisted groan bursting low from her lips as the strength ran out of her arm, the pain streaking through her. He shoved at her, tossing her onto her back next to him in the dirt and knocking the wind out of her, leaving her gasping like a stunned fish.

Instead of dragging the knife from Starbuck's still tightly clenched fingers, Leon went for the shotgun. It had only landed several metres away but was hidden by the grass, and he scrabbled to his feet and stared about frantically for it for a brief second.

Starbuck shook her head and gasped in a full lungful of air, mind clearing. She shoved herself upright, ignoring the screaming pain in her arm, and rushed at Leon, who had just spotted the shotgun and was taking a long, loping step toward it. Starbuck got him before he got the gun.

"Always a little bit faster than you, huh, Leoben?"

Leon froze.

A statue, slightly bent over, his hand reaching down for the shotgun, Starbuck right behind him with the knife blade held against his throat and her free hand's fingers digging into his bicep hard enough to leave bruises.

"This time, Kara."

"If I slit your throat now there won't be a next time, motherfrakker." She dug the wicked sharp blade edge into his flesh just a little, not quite breaking the skin – yet.

"Back up – slowly. Away from the godsdamned gun." Starbuck ordered, mind racing, not sure what the frak she was going to do now. She was a little reluctant – okay, very godsdamned reluctant – to just kill him like she'd threatened. But if she let him go…well, they were back where they'd started. There was a good chance he could overpower her before she unholstered her sidearm. The lion's attack and her little brawl with Leon had left her not a little worse for wear, and she didn't know how much more she could take without keeling over.

Leon backed up, slow and careful, straightening little by little until he was standing upright again.

"Good." Starbuck told him, and then continued in a conversational tone, the only give-away of the strain she was bearing the slightest tremor in her knife hand,

"Y'know, this whole 'All this has happened before, and all this will happen again' bullshit? I'm starting to wonder if it was actually about me killing you. So many times, now _Leoben_ – I've lost count. 'Course, like I said before – I do it now, and you ain't ever coming back."

"The Second Coming. The darkness drops again but now I know, that twenty centuries of stony sleep, were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle, and what rough beast, its hour come round at last, slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?" Leon babbled out fast and jumbled and the fine hairs on Starbuck's neck stood erect and shivers ran through her. It was godsdamned creepy, whatever it was that he was babbling.

"What the frak is that supposed to mean?" She asked, pulse racing as her mind flew over the words and felt the cold chill of a seeping, sourceless terror.

"The Second Coming." He repeated again insistently, like he thought repetition would help her understand the nonsense.

"And in your deluded Cylon brain, that is what, exactly?" She jerked her hand on his arm,

"Tell me!"

Leon chuckled, choosing to ignore her question,

"You're all twisty in your mind – I can feel it. No, not just your mind, but your heart. Angel fallen from heaven. All twisted up, knotted in circles and riddles, and denial isn't just a body of water relatively nearby our current position when viewed comparatively against the grand scope of the galaxy. Eeny, meeny, miny, moe, Kara Thrace. Inimicus animo." He laughed again,

"Angel fallen. Doesn't know what she is. Lost, and meanwhile, closer and closer the beast slouches; gaze as pitiless as the sun. Closer, Kara Thrace. The Second Coming. Resurrection. The Second Coming. Inimicus animo, Kara."

"You shut your godsdamned mouth, you crazy motherfrakker." Starbuck hissed out, knife to the grinning bastard's throat, her hand shaking and knuckles white around the hilt.

"Or you'll what? Cut on me? Torture me some? You've already done that, Kara. Old hat, now." Leon tried to twist around to look into Starbuck's eyes and she gripped his arm harder, fingers digging into his bicep, knife pressing warningly harder against the tender flesh of his throat.

"Well then, should be easy for me to slip back into the habit. A well-trodden path. Had me a lotta practice." She was shaking and furious despite her attempts at flippancy, and the blade bit into his throat and pierced the skin, a thin line of red appearing.

"Just a pity we don't have an airlock for after I'm done."

"Poor frightened little Kara Thrace. Thinks she's a bird. Thinks she's free and safe, but I've seen. I've seen."

"Shut up." Starbuck growled the words through her clenched jaw, fury pumping through her.

"Kara." Lee's voice warning her not to do anything silly; trying to be calming and defuse the situation and just coming out tense and tight.

"Shut up, Lee." She growled instantly and instinctively at him, and then her eyes widened with shock, moving to meet his worried blue ones over Leon's shoulder. _Lee?_ What in the _hell_ was he doing here?

That slight distraction was all it took.

The Two grabbed Starbuck's arm where it crossed around his shoulder from behind and held the knife to his throat, his fingers crushing her wrist and simultaneously yanking it away from his throat.

Starbuck felt the small bones in her wrist crunching as Leon constricted his hand around them, mashing them into one another and she yelped, pain blanking her mind for a moment.

Leon's other arm ripped free of Starbuck's grasp on it and ploughed back elbow-first into her stomach, whooshing the wind out of her. She staggered back, knife falling from numbed fingers, wrist hurting like a bitch and momentarily dazed.

Before Starbuck could collect herself, before Lee could cross the dry ground to grab Leon, the Two snagged the tumbling knife out of midair and whirled Starbuck around.

She flailed out as she gasped for breath that wouldn't come, the brief panic of breathlessness making her struggles ineffective. And then Leon held her tight and the cold blade touched her throat, just piercing the skin.

Starbuck froze.

"I've got you, Kara. Got you safe." Leoben whispered in her ear, holding her back closer against him than she had done to him – but then he would, wouldn't he. Starbuck's stomach rebelled on her and she choked back a retch. She was stiff in his grip, spine straight as steel, jaw clamped tense and hands balled at her sides into fists.

"Let her go…" Lee paused and looked the Two up and down,

"Leon?"

"Good eye, Lee Adama." Leon's voice carried a smirk and Starbuck curled her lip in contempt.

"Leon." Lee repeated his name,

"Let Kara go. Now."

"And why would I do that?"

Starbuck was facing Lee, her eyes glued to his face. Gods, she had never been more happy or more pissed off to see him. If he hadn't distracted her, then she wouldn't be in this situation now – but on the other hand, the sight of someone else, with a gun ready in their hand was one she desperately welcomed at this point. Lee wasn't looking at her; his gaze going past her to Leon, blue eyes hard and dangerous.

"Because I'm the one who has the gun." Lee answered Leon coolly, and the Two snorted with humour, body shaking against Starbuck's.

"But I'm the one who has a knife against your lover's throat. One…little…slip…" A sharp sting seared through Starbuck's throat and she winced and bit her lip,

"And her blood is on your hands, Lee. Can you live with that?"

The frakking _bastard_. Starbuck's heart pounded more with anger than fear now, the thrill of adrenaline pumping steadily through her battered body. She was frakking _pissed_.

"You won't do it, Leon." Lee answered, still cool, and Starbuck felt herself twinge with desire, seeing a side of Lee she hadn't seen in so long, reminding her of one of the things she found so godsdamned attractive about him. Not a good time to be getting hot and bothered, she told herself. She looked at Lee meaningfully, caught his eye and mouthed silent words at him. He nodded fractionally.

"Are you willing to stake Kara's life on that?" Leon asked of Lee, and Starbuck could still hear the mocking laughter in the crazy Two's voice.

Lee lifted an eyebrow at Starbuck. She raised hers back impatiently.

"No. But she is." Lee told Leon, and smoothly, so godsdamned quickly, sighted his gun and squeezed off a shot, just as Starbuck's hands flew to her throat, grabbing Leon's hand and shoving it away from her as hard as she could. Everything else happened nearly as fast, passing in several heartbeats.

Leon grunted and staggered back and the knife sliced aimlessly across Starbuck's throat, only the pressure she was exerting against Leon's hand stopping the blade from opening her from ear to ear. A deep stinging rushed through her flesh and blood wet in trickles down to her collarbone but she didn't have time to worry about how deep the wound was.

Starbuck whirled on Leon as he stumbled back with the impact of the bullet that had struck through his armpit – exposed by the way he had been holding the knife to her throat – and slammed her fist into his jaw. The blow disoriented Leon further and dazed confusion crossed his face, eyes puzzled on Starbuck's. Her hands shaking and frantic, Starbuck struck out and stripped the knife from Leon's nerveless hand. He swayed,

"Kara?"

She stepped back, and then the toe of her boot snapped up and rammed into his crotch and Leon dropped like a stone.

"Kara!" It was Lee saying her name this time, fear and urgency in his voice and she backed off from Leon's curled up form, spotting the shotgun nestled in the grass and automatically snagging it up. She turned to face Lee, who touched her cheek with one hand and stared intently into her eyes. Looking for damage, scanning her to see if she was all right. His fingers drifted over her throat, the bleeding of which had already begun to clot – the wound couldn't have been deep. Probably not even need stitches.

"Are you okay?" He asked a second later, and Starbuck nodded, suddenly immensely and uncomplicatedly happy that he was there with her. She didn't speak, just hugged him, arms wrapping tightly around him as Lee tried to manoeuvrer his pistol out of the way and return the unexpected hug, the shotgun and knife clasped in each of Starbuck's hands forgotten and digging into his back.

"Good rescue." Starbuck mumbled half-teasingly into Lee's ear and he shrugged,

"Turned out all right."

"Yeah. It did. Thanks, Lee."

A brief silence, Starbuck clinging to Lee and trusting that he was keeping a sharp eye on Leon. Then,

"That weapon I can feel pinned against parts of me I value isn't going to go off accidentally, is it?" Lee asked cautiously after a moment, and Starbuck snorted, half-giggled with the heady high of still being alive. They untangled themselves and Lee turned his full attention and his gun on Leon; the Two still curled up on the ground.

"Safety's on now." Starbuck told Lee and he cocked an eyebrow at her,

"It wasn't before?"

"Well…anyway, it didn't go off, so alls well that ends well?"

"Mmph. Except we still have a loose end – what are we going to do with him?"

"Shoot him." Starbuck answered deadpan as she walked over to stand by Lee's side, and saw Leon's huddled body jerk with fear, eyes like a trapped animal's staring up at them.

"Shoo–" Lee glanced sharply at Starbuck,

"Oh, right." He saw the joking twinkle in her eyes and huffed a laugh.

"It's tempting, I must admit. But…we should probably just take him back to Landfall. Hand him over to LanSec."

Then he looked at her again, taking in the damage to her arm for the first time.

"Gods, Kara – what in the hell happened to you? Did he –"

"No. The lion did that." Starbuck indicated the dead big cat, which in all the excitement Lee had apparently missed noticing.

"_Lion?_" His eyes flicked from the dead beast to Starbuck, almost comically stunned by the revelation.

"Yeah. And we're not leaving til I've skinned it either. That big frakking bastard nearly killed me – and I'm taking his godsdamned skin in payment, shot Leon or no shot Leon." She shoved the shotgun into Lee's hand, and limped over to the lion's carcass, bending over it with the hunting knife. He accepted it dumbly; still automatically holding his pistol on Leon, face a study in befuddlement.

"_Lion?_"

# # #

"You're sure you're okay?"

"I'm fine, Lee. Really" Starbuck lay sprawled beside him on their low bed, unashamedly naked and stretching on her back languorously, catching his eye successfully and smirking to herself.

"You're sure your arm…?"

"Hurts like a bitch, but Doc says I'll live, so I'll live."

She rolled onto her side and traced a finger over Lee's chest, hooking her leg over his. He was just as naked as her, but the sheet was pulled up to his waist, white cotton contrasting with his bronzed tan. She traced patterns over his skin, lost in pleasant thoughts.

The lion had been butchered and skinned to the tune of Lee's weak protests, and the skin was soaking in tanning solution outside at the moment. Leon, the crazy frakking Cylon, was in Landfall's lockup, Starbuck's injuries had been patched up, and she was feeling immensely content stretched out beside Lee. Everything was serene, everything felt right. No confusion at the moment, no itching niggle that told her something was wrong. Everything was stilled.

Her fingers slid down Lee's torso, teasing aside the sheet and searching out his cock beneath. He was hard, hot in her hand, and Starbuck bit her lip, smirking.

"What are you…?"

"What do _you_ think?"

"You're hurt."

"I'm _fine_, Lee." Starbuck repeated with light impatience, and then her mouth was otherwise occupied; trailing kisses down his body to his cock. He sighed as she enveloped it abruptly, tongue swirling over the head and hand moving slowly up and down, twisting now and then.

"_Frak_."

"Mmhm." Starbuck grinned around his cock and sucked on it hard, Lee's hands twitching where they had buried themselves in her hair. She released it with a popping sound and wriggled into a more comfortable position between his legs, grinning up at Lee and making a show of licking her lips. His eyes fluttered shut for a moment as she lapped at him, delicate, teasing touches, tongue wet and lazy. Starbuck took her time, working Lee right to the very edge and then letting him down, pushing him to his limits. His hands gripped fistfuls of her fine blonde hair, and his breath came sharp and heavy. He was hot in her mouth, hard, twitching as she swallowed around him, as she made him slick and wet and tormented him with her tongue and lips and hands.

It had been a long time since she'd had fun like this.

And then – careful of her arm – Lee lost patience with her drawn out game. He grabbed her and dragged her up the bed and flipped her onto her back in one smooth motion,

"My turn." Lee spread her legs and a moment later Starbuck's back arched off the bed as his mouth ducked down to the junction between her thighs, using every bit of his considerable skill to please her. It was better than good, better than pleasurable. It was godsdamned frakking amazing. His mouth was hot and wet, tongue drawing figure eights and circles, playing with firm flicks and soft strokes, that kept going and going, bringing Starbuck inexorably closer and closer to the edge.

Lee's fingers played over her slick flesh, delving inside her, flexing and thrusting, curling, making her legs twitch and the soles of her feet burn with pleasure. Starbuck's chest was heaving and her eyes squeezed tight shut by the end, fingers grasping his hair, pinning his head right where it was, incoherent curses escaping her lips.

"Oh frak, Lee, oh _gods_…_motherfrakker_, Lee…"

And then Starbuck came apart, waves of orgasm rippling through her. So godsdamn intense. Muscles clenching convulsively, hot wet flesh twitching around his fingers, thighs crushing his head without thought. It consumed her, and then slowly, melted away.

"Oh _gods_." She mewled, body going limp in the aftermath, buzzing with warmth and pleasure, afterglow swamping her.

"Not done yet." Lee promised with a grin and Starbuck smirked back, recovering the use of her brain somewhat,

"Good." She panted, and lay bonelessly limp as he hooked her legs over his shoulders, a moan escaping her lips as he thrust. Hard. Oh _frak_ he felt good, filling her, so good, the angle just…just perfect…

"Oh gods _yes_ like that, right there, Lee, oh _frak_,_ yes_…"

It was frakking sensory overload. Starbuck lost herself in the sensation of their bodies interlocked, whimpering and cursing as he thrust into her swollen flesh. And then Lee's muscles went taut, and he pulled out fast, and Starbuck cracked her heavy-lidded eyes open and watched, sated and blissful, as he finished himself with a last few strokes. Gods, that always looked so godsdamned _hot_.

He slumped to the bed beside her, both lying on their backs, staring at the fire dancing dimly on the ceiling and catching their breath. Lee's hand folded around Starbuck's, and she grinned to herself as her fingers stroked his affectionately, sighing with complete satisfaction.

Some time later, still naked and pleasingly filled by a surprisingly tasty dinner, they both curled under the sheets again. The fire burnt low across the room, and Starbuck's head rested on Lee's chest, his fingers carding through her hair, untangling any knots. She felt like a cat, totally contented with the fire radiating warmth into her tired muscles, and someone comfortable to curl against and pet her. It was an unusual feeling, but pleasant.

"Thank you. For today."

"Gods, I was so scared." Lee admitted, one arm wrapping tighter around her. Starbuck smiled drowsily,

"I was fine, though. _Am_ fine. Aren't I?"

"Yeah, you are, thank the gods. Hey, um… I'm sorry I ruined your picnic."

"That's okay. Picnics aren't really my thing anyway. I think I got more bonding out of today just the way it was." Starbuck blinked, trying to stay awake. She was just so godsdamned tired, and Lee was way too comfortable.

"You're insane, you know that?"

"So I've been told." She yawned, jaw cracking.

Lee tucked a blanket up around her shoulders, kissed the top of her head.

"Gods, I love you."

"L've 'ou too." Starbuck mumbled back unintelligibly, drifting into sleep with a yawn of utterly relaxed contentment.

# # #

Later

"Mr President? Do you happen to know what the words _Inimicus Animo_ mean?" Starbuck eyed him carefully from her turned around chair in front of Romo Lampkin's desk.

"A curious question to come from your lips, Starbuck." Romo glanced up from the document he was perusing, hooking his dark glasses down slightly to peer over the top of them at her.

"The Two, Leon, said it to me. Like it meant something important. I thought that if anyone would know what it meant, you would, sir." Her words were tossed out off-hand, painfully flippant and not fooling Romo in the slightest.

"Curiouser and curiouser. I do, in fact, hold the answer to that rather unexpected question." A pause, smoke wisping through the air as Romo puffed contemplatively on a cigar, making Starbuck wait for the answer.

"_Inimicus Animo_ is a phrase in an ancient language, that translates basically to 'Enemy of the Soul', if I'm remembering correctly." He leant back in his chair and nudged his glasses back up his nose.

"Enemy of the Soul?" Starbuck's brow furrowed with thought.

"That's what I said, Starbuck. I _wonder_, what did the Two mean by that?"

"I have no frakking idea, sir."

"Don't you?" Romo prodded meaningfully and Starbuck shook her head with the ease of the honestly confused, no deception in her demeanour,

"Nope."

"Well, it was probably nonsense anyway, I imagine." Romo smiled faintly and turned his head back to the paper in front of him, but behind his dark glasses his eyes slipped up to Starbuck's face once more, to see what was there.

"Mm. Probably…" She echoed distractedly.

# # #

Much Later

"Hi Sam." Starbuck settled on the floor by the tank, dipping her hand into the white goo and interlinking her strong fingers with his thin ones, the motion easy and familiar. She smiled at his still face in greeting, the expression on her wide mouth tinged with sadness. And then she began talking, and the sadness was forgotten for now, a glint sparking in her eyes as she said gleefully,

"I wrestled a lion yesterday…"

# # #

_Author's Notes:_ And thus ends _Interlude: Black and White Disorientation_. It was a fun story to write – I kinda just went crazy with it. I wanted to write something that was a little surreal, focused completely on Starbuck, had some action scenes (I like writing action; I'm not sure if I'm any good at it, but I so enjoy writing it), involved a dangerous Two, and that provided some clarity regarding Starbuck's relationships. I think I've achieved that, but of course, that's just me – what's important is what did you all think of it?

One thing I'm never too sure about is how the Kara/Lee sex scenes turn out; they never seem to flow very easily when I write them. Tigh and Ellen getting their (disturbing) sex on; so damn easy and fun to write, but Kara and Lee…'tis difficult. Hopefully though, I made it work.

So…opinions, feedback, critique – comments of any and all types? Please leave a _review_ :)

Coming up on the next episode of _BSG: S5_…

Romo Lampkin faces a highly controversial political situation thanks to the actions of a previous President, Hotdog gets some bad news, Sharon Agathon goes into labour, Jake goes walkabout, and we catch a glimpse of two of our old friends. All that and more, in _Episode Four: The Trials and Tribulations of Parenthood_!

Going up in two days time approx.


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